Rosh Hashanah >> rabbinic messages
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At ORT schools in the
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L' Shana Tovah from ORT America!
1753560
September 13 A 2012
JN
ust recently, a "Peanuts" car-
toon classic caught my eye. In
the comic, Lucy approaches
Charlie Brown who is
standing on the pitching
mound. Lucy tosses him
the baseball and says,
"Sorry, I missed that fly
ball, Charlie Brown. I
thought I had it, but sud-
denly I remembered all
the others I had missed,
and the past just got in my
eyes!"
What an appropriate
metaphor for the High
Holiday season because
this is a time to acknowledge the past. We
j
ORT educates over 300,000 students around the world every year.
64
minister had made a poor judgment, but
was essentially a good and trustworthy
subject, and so he reinstated him as
prime minister.
On Rosh Hashanah, God is
the king who chose the Jewish
people so many years ago
because of their devotion to
Him. The wise villager is the
villager who was elevated by the
king to a position of importance,
and the clothes that he wore is
the shofar that reminds God of
our true devotion to Him when
we became His trusted nation.
The story was told many years
ago by the great Chassidic mas-
ter Reb Levi of Berditchov and is truly
heartwarming, but allow me to subject it
to a deeper level of scrutiny.
The king, when seeing the villager
standing before him, remembered the
devotion of the villager to escort him
home and the wisdom that he showed
that day. But let us consider the villager
himself. How did he feel when donning
those garments? What thoughts went
through his mind? He had, after all,
betrayed the trust of the king!
No doubt he considered the kindness
that the king had shown him and how
much he owed to the king; he must have
been truly ashamed.
This year, when we hear the shofar,
let's be that villager. Let us think about
the bounty of kindness that God has
bestowed upon us and the sincere com-
mitment to God that we, the Jewish peo-
ple, made when we accepted His Torah
and assumed the role of being a nation
of priests and a holy nation. ❑
Michael Cohen is rabbi at Young Israel of
Oak Park.
Finding The True Meaning
In The Days Of Awe
Rachel Cohen, Graphic Designer
ORTamerica.org twitter.comiORTamerica facebook.com/ORTamerica
here is a beautiful story that
serves to illustrate the sig-
nificance of the blowing of the
shofar on Rosh Hashanah.
The story tells of a king
who was once traveling far
from his palace when he
realized that he was not
only far from "home:' but
was also lost. He asked
anyone and everyone for
directions, but none of the
peasants recognized him
as the king nor did they
know the way to get back
to the highway.
There was one fellow
who did recognize the king; not only
did he give him directions, but he also
escorted the king all the way back to the
palace and into the throne room! The
king was grateful to this villager and
acknowledged his wisdom by appointing
him as a minister. The shabby clothes
that the villager was wearing were put
away, and he was dressed in the finest
clothes.
It happened many years later that the
villager, now prime minister, commit-
ted disloyalty and was to be put on trial
by the king. The wise villager who had
risen through the ranks of the palace
was sorely troubled. What was he to do;
he was indeed guilty of treason.
On the day of the trial, the minister
asked that he be allowed to stand before
the king to be sentenced in his old village
clothes. And so it was that when the king
raised his head to sentence his prime
minister for treason, he saw not the
treacherous prime minister, but the kind
and wise villager that had saved him
in his own hour of need. The king had
mercy and understood that the prime
ask forgiveness for our failure to live up
to our potential, and we seek repentance
from those we hurt both knowingly and
unknowingly. It is only after look-
ing at ourselves in sincerity and
taking responsibility for where we
fell short that we can then begin
the New Year 5773 with a clean
slate. As we enter the Days of Awe,
we seek a new vision and approach,
one in which the past does not get
in our eyes.
This is the season of confession
and authentic personal expression.
If we cannot be honest with our-
selves at this moment in time, we
must question our ability to ever
be able to confront our misdeeds. Rosh